GAME AS A NATIONAL RESOURCE. 



17 



center of abundance of these birds, no longer afford quail hunting. 

 Kansas was the pioneer State in attempting to curtail traffic in 

 game birds by prohibiting export of quail in 1876. Iowa, in 1878, 

 attempted to restrict excessive killing by establishing a daily bag 

 limit. The Kansas law, however, did not remain in force very long. 

 In the nineties southern Kansas was the center of the shipment of 

 quail for propagation, and thousands of birds were shipped from 

 the vicinity of Wichita to various States east and west, and also to 

 foreign countries. In 1903 the State found it necessary to close the 

 season on quail in 19 counties ; in 1905 to extend the protection three 

 years longer in 14 of these counties; and in 1913 to give quail pro- 

 tection in all the counties for a period of five years. Following this 



I////1 Hunting limited 

 I 1 Hunting unlimited 



Fro. 3. — Rabbit hunting in 1920.' In 23 States, chiefly in the East (shaded area), short 

 open seasons were provided. In the remainder of the country hunting was unlimited. 



example, Idaho, Iowa, and Ohio in 1917 enacted laws protecting quail 

 throughout the year. 



That deer hunting should no longer be possible in the great agri- 

 cultural States in the Middle West is perhaps not surprising, but 

 when quail shooting also is eliminated, conditions become serious for 

 the sportsman. Three States in this section — Ohio, Iowa, and 

 Nebraska — now have neither deer hunting nor quail shooting. In 

 Ohio there are possibly 265,000 sportsmen, in Iowa about 105,000, 

 in Nebraska about 65,000. Nearly 435,000 sportsmen of these three 

 States are deprived of any big-game hunting or quail shooting unless 

 they go elsewhere, and are forced to confine their hunting mainly 

 to rabbits (see fig. 3) and waterfowl. 



79S64— 22 3 



